Egyptian-British author Nadia Wassef's gorgeous, entertaining memoir recounts the launching of a modern bookstore, the first of its kind, in Egypt's chaotic capital of Cairo at the turn of the 21st century. With chapters corresponding to the different sections of the bookstore and its cafe, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller celebrates the remarkable success of the venture while sharing with humble honesty and wry humor the personal and professional challenges it created for the author.
Named Diwan, an Arabic word for "meeting place," the bookstore embodies Wassef and her sister Hind's dream to establish a female-led literary hub in patriarchal Egyptian society, where culture had atrophied, illiteracy was common and book lovers had few options to satisfy their intellectual cravings. Wassef's exuberance at realizing her dream was tempered by the reality of Egyptian society's cultural aversion to women in power and the suffocating encroachment of governmental bureaucracies. A shipment of The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver placed Diwan directly in the crosshairs of Egypt's archaic censorship laws, and Wassef worked hard to convince the censorship bureau official--via her male lawyer--that The Naked Chef was not offensive to public morals.
Wassef's debut brims with wistfully elegant musings on the consolation and inspiration offered by literature, and the struggles of parenting two young daughters while serving at the helm of Diwan's expanding empire. From a visionary who is passionate about the written word, Wassef's memoir is both an intimate reckoning with motherhood, marriage and feminism and a thoughtful meditation on Egyptian literary culture and history. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer